CALIFORNIA — A professional journalists’ organizationhonored a high school newspaper adviser March 27 for defendinghis students’ right to publish a story about state sex educationguidelines.

The Northern California Chapter of the Society for ProfessionalJournalists presented Granite Bay High School adviser Karl Grubaughwith the James Madison Freedom of Information Award for standingup to school board members and parents who wanted him to censorthe student newspaper.

The struggle began after the newspaper, the Granite BayGazette, published an article about a new state law that requiresschools to emphasize abstinence in their sex-education courses.For the story, student reporters interviewed the school’s healtheducation teacher, who is quoted in the article describing students’ignorance about sex.

Parents, who appeared to be more upset by the large headlinethat read "Let’s Talk about Sex" than by their children’slack of knowledge, called the principal and school board membersto complain. One parent even called the Pacific Justice Institute,a nonprofit legal foundation that threatened to file a lawsuitagainst both Grubaugh and the health education teacher.

But Grubaugh refused to give in to the parents’ demands, insteaddefending his students’ right to publish an uncensored newspaper.

"I defended the right of my students to publish theirstory because not doing so would have been illegal in the stateof California," Grubaugh said. State law "makes it clearthat no one has the right to determine content in student publicationsexcept students. But I also defended their right to publish thestory because I believed it was the right thing to do, both educationallyand journalistically."